Welcome to Gathering Magic's weekly quintet of Magic Online decks you should be aware of this weekend, whether you're playing a major online event, going to a Grand Prix, or hitting Friday Night Magic. In an era of big data, Magic Online provides some of the biggest data, so even a quick-and-dirty snapshot of recent activity gets you ahead of the competition. This week, we'll make a long-overdue stop at Legacy right before the bannings take effect digitally, peeking in at the Modern Pro Tour Qualifier from the weekend.

Is This Banning an Eternal Flame?

Here's what 4–0'd in Dailies this week:

• Jeskai Miracles: 3 (won 3)
• Elves: 2
• Esper CounterTop: 1
• Temur Delver: 1
• Sultai Delver: 1

Mzfroste won Tuesday's and Thursday's events with this list:

Jeskai Miracles ? Legacy | Mzfroste

• Creatures (3)
• 3 Snapcaster Mage

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (34)
• 1 Pyroblast
• 1 Red Elemental Blast
• 2 Counterspell
• 2 Dig Through Time
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Entreat the Angels
• 3 Ponder
• 4 Terminus
• 4 Counterbalance
• 4 Sensei's Divining Top

• Lands (21)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 4 Island
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 2 Volcanic Island
• 3 Tundra
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Pyroblast
• 3 Flusterstorm
• 2 Izzet Staticaster
• 2 Monastery Mentor
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 2 Wear // Tear

Buy This Deck

Note that this list will have to replace Dig Through Time. But Miracles was a deck before Dig Through Time, and it will be a deck after it. Nothing's particularly changed about it since my June write-up; there are Surgical Extractions in the sideboard instead of Ethersworn Canonists. (User jininamori's Saturday-winning decklist had the Ethersworn Canonists instead.) Miracles remains the premier control deck of the format; this week's results have done nothing to say otherwise, even if a two-of draw spell has to go.

Wednesday's Daily winner took a different approach to the control engine:

Esper CounterTop ? Legacy | purple0nion

• Creatures (5)
• 2 Baleful Strix
• 1 Venser, Shaper Savant
• 2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
• 2 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (31)
• 1 Counterspell
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Vindicate
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 3 Counterbalance
• 2 Sword of the Meek
• 2 Thopter Foundry
• 3 Sensei's Divining Top

• Lands (21)
• 2 Island
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Scrubland
• 2 Tundra
• 3 Underground Sea
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Seat of the Synod

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 1 Engineered Plague
• 1 Ensnaring Bridge
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 1 Gurmag Angler
• 1 Humility
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Plains
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Tsabo's Web

Buy This Deck

Counterbalance has synergy with Sensei's Divining Top, which has synergy with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, who has synergy with Academy Ruins, which has synergy with Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Liliana of the Veil. That's as concisely as I can describe how this deck made its choices. The combination of Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek is vulnerable to some common answers in the format (which might be why I hadn't seen it for a while), but Academy Ruins adds welcome resilience.

With a slightly high curve for Legacy (Humility in the sideboard? Baneslayer Angel!?), Thoughtseize is critical, stripping either early action if the Counterbalance soft lock is far away or taking anything Counterbalance is unlikely to handle. Of the Counterbalance decks out there, this is my favorite, as it seems more interesting to pilot than Miracles.

Friday's Daily was won with no control at all:

Elves ? Legacy | calebhclebsworth

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Birchlore Rangers
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 3 Heritage Druid
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Nettle Sentinel
• 4 Quirion Ranger
• 4 Wirewood Symbiote

• Spells (12)
• 4 Glimpse of Nature
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Natural Order

• Lands (20)
• 2 Forest
• 2 Bayou
• 2 Dryad Arbor
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Gaea's Cradle

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Cabal Therapy
• 1 Choke
• 1 Null Rod
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 1 Progenitus
• 1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 3 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

I wouldn't be surprised if Shaman of the Pack makes the seventy-five someday. As potent as Craterhoof Behemoth is, it has to win through combat, and there are answers to combat. Just having Shaman of the Pack around gives Elves a different angle should it need one. It might not be necessary now, but it's worth keeping in mind.

If that deck makes you miss Force of Will too much, even as you might not like Counterbalance, Temur Delver will help you feel better:

Temur Delver ? Legacy | jacetmsst

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Nimble Mongoose
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Spells (30)
• 1 Dismember
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Spell Snare
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Daze
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Stifle
• 1 Forked Bolt
• 4 Ponder

• Lands (18)
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Polluted Delta
• 3 Tropical Island
• 3 Volcanic Island
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 1 Null Rod
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 1 Pyroblast
• 2 Red Elemental Blast
• 2 Rough // Tumble
• 1 Sulfuric Vortex
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Sylvan Library
• 1 True-Name Nemesis
• 1 Vendilion Clique

Buy This Deck

It's been a finely-tuned deck for a while, still finding room for Nimble Mongoose after all these years. It's also the best Stifle deck; throwing a wet blanket on fetch lands or Wastelands is as mean as ever. Temur Delver hasn't been tier one for a while, but in the hands of a skilled pilot, I'd never count it out.

Pro-Tour-Ction from Opponents

The most popular G/U Beast of Modern (were you thinking it was Trapjaw Kelpie?) sent somebody to the Pro Tour:

Hexproof ? Modern | Naisirc

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Gladecover Scout
• 4 Kor Spiritdancer
• 4 Slippery Bogle

• Spells (27)
• 3 Path to Exile
• 1 Glaring Aegis
• 1 Spirit Mantle
• 3 Hyena Umbra
• 3 Unflinching Courage
• 4 Daybreak Coronet
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Rancor
• 4 Spider Umbra

• Lands (21)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Plains
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Horizon Canopy
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Gaddock Teeg
• 4 Leyline of Sanctity
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 2 Seal of Primordium
• 2 Stony Silence
• 3 Suppression Field

Buy This Deck

I didn't give Glaring Aegis a second thought before seeing it in this list, but the unassuming Dragons of Tarkir Aura has enough heft to be Modern-playable. I've faced Bogles enough times to feel the sweet relief of finding any blocker. Glaring Aegis isn't much of an Aura, but it at least is one, and it can tell a would-be blocker what to do. In the sideboard, Naisirc's gone a little heavy on the Gaddock Teegs; given how popular Engineered Explosives is as a catch-all (I'm considering running it in my mono-green deck primarily for this matchup), it's quite defensible.

Conclusion

Coming out of the downtime on the day this article comes out, Magic Online's Legacy format loses Dig Through Time and gains Black Vise. While this week's winners imply that Legacy wasn't fatally lopsided before the change, adding Black Vise to the format could spawn a new archetype that reconfigures the metagame. It's almost a month until the next Legacy Grand Prix, so there's not a lot of time to find out. But if it wins a Legacy event somewhere, I'm sure we'll hear about it.